A Portrait of the UK Game Pirate

Next Generation has a report up on a British study that indicates something like 84 percent of 15 to 18 year olds pirate video games in Britain. 72 percent of those folks pirate games because they can't wait for the UK releases. From the article: "This study shows very clearly the drivers behind videogame piracy...Most respondents who have and will continue to illegally download games are young males, between 15 and 19 years old. They feel videogames are too expensive and resent the long wait for many games released in the US or in Asia before the UK. With a high level of computer literacy, it's easy for them to find a game online and download it. Their friends all do it and why shouldn't they?"

Comments

News Flash!

[brkello]

Piracy is easy. Kids do it. Game publishers are on streets selling crack to feed their family. Film at 11.

Not surprising

[Linus Torvaalds]

72 percent of those folks pirate games because they can't wait for the UK releases.

If this was a tangible product, then it would be expressed as "they get it on the black market because it isn't commercially available".

There's really no good reason for a game to be released in the USA, and then wait months before releasing it in the UK. It's marketing gone wrong.

They feel videogames are too expensive and resent the long wait for many games released in the US or in Asia before the UK.

Imagine that - something is overpriced, so they get it from illegitimate channels instead. Is there any market where this isn't true?

The main difference between video games and physical products is that copyright gives the publishers a monopoly. It's not a free market.

Re:Not surprising

[cpt kangarooski]

There's really no good reason for a game to be released in the USA, and then wait months before releasing it in the UK.

Oh, I'm sure that localizing software from the US to the UK is a time-intensive process, requiring careful attention by the translators.

Re:Not surprising

[Seumas]

Consumer: I don't want to spend $70 for a videogame or $30 for a DVD. That's very over-priced. I'm going to copy this game from someone else, instead.

Corporation: I don't want to spend $80,000 for a developer. That's very over-priced. I'm going to open up shop in the third world and hire one for less than a burger-flipper makes in my town.

I can see the release date thing as a driver...

[Atrax]

... but I do think that cost is a major cause. The target market is in the late teens and while this segment has a lot of purchasing power, they're also a hotly metketed-to segment.

This inevitably results in fierce competition for the teen dollar, and hey, "if I can get this game for free, I can afford to spend the money on that neat pair of sneakers everyone says are so cool" and so on...

Now, for me, as an adult with a bit more of a budget than the average 18 year-old, the release date thing really annoys me. In Australia we usually have a long wait for product 'x', but I can buy online if I so choose and bypass the release date problem (except where a PAL version of a console game isn't available until long after the NTSC version)

So yeah, I think cost is the biggest factor.

Those aren't the REAL reason.

[defkkon]

I'm sure the late release dates is one reason. I mean, I live in Canada, so I don't have to worry about that. I'm sure the late release dates are annoying as hell.

I can also believe that the high prices are a factor. ONE factor.

The real reason. The BASE reason is because its free and easy. You could charge $15 for every game. You know what? The people would still pirate. I can buy CDs for $9.99 off of iTunes now. Do I? Well... I'll leave that up to your imagination. The key here is that FREE is always better that having to pay something. I don't care if the release dates are pushed back and the price is sky-high - free is always best.

Re:Those aren't the REAL reason.

[jensen404]

I just bought a couple of used Gamecube games on Ebay, because I think $50 is too much.

What I did was legal, but Nintendo didn't make any money from me.

That is one of the things driving DRM... making media non-transferable.

Re:Those aren't the REAL reason.

[GigsVT]

I can buy CDs for $9.99 off of iTunes now. Do I?

I can buy CDs from allofmp3 for $3. Do I? Yes. Close to $100 worth in the last year. Would I do it if it were $9.99 and DRMed? No.

Same with CDs.. I'm not going to pay $15-$20 for a CD.

Just as the open source attckers often say "only if your time is free" the same applies to piracy.

There's an opportunity cost involved, and if someone wants to sell me a product cheaper than my opportunity cost, then I'll buy it. If they don't then that's their loss. I'll find some other way to get what I want or just do without it.

This is what copy protection has always tried to do, raise the opportunity cost for piracy. It hasn't been very successful, ever. The content producers should give up on trying to raise the opportunity cost and just sell below it. They would see their profits soar (especially the music industry that has literally hundreds of thousands of songs locked away).

So the path is simple. Release your entire library of music online. No DRM. And keep the price very low, 10 cents a song is reasonable. You'll see the music industry become one of the largest industries in the US overnight.

Or keep the blinders on and keep suing your customers. We'll see how that works out.

Segmented markets are no longer feasible

[infernow]

It seems that part of this problem could be resolved rather easily by just releasing the game to the UK when it's released elsewhere. If they can release the game in Asia at the same time as in the US, I see no reason why some English-language versions of the game can't be shipped over to the UK for sale. It's not like it has to be translated or anything.

This is all rather similar to the DVD region-coding tactic. Splitting the world into isolated markets where you can charge more or less for the same product just doesn't work any more. People will just get on the internet and, for example, order their Futurama DVDs from Europe earlier or for less than they can in the US, or they'll just pirate them. Companies know that piracy equals lost sales, so why don't they just release as widely as possible so people can just get what they want?

sounds like an untapped market to me

[Naikrovek]

whenever you see people breaking the law with intellectual property, you are looking into the eyes of an untapped market. Apple saw this and created iTunes.

A surprisingly large portion of illegal downloaders download songs, movies, and games because they want to download them, not because they want to steal. So sell it to them electronically.

Problem: Teen blokes in the UK download US games before their native release?
Solution: Release the US version in the UK and the US on the same day. Make it available for download in the UK and take $10 off the price because the words are all spelled wrong and the voice overs have that horrible American accent. Also, you don't need to package the box, press the CDs, and ship it to the UK. Give the online purchaser in the UK the same price you give to the chain stores here in the US.

I think you'd see the percentage of illegal downloads go down.

Re:The problem is the French and Germans!

[Dachannien]

The problem isn't the French and Germans. The problem is with the game publishers who evidently don't "get" that Brits speak essentially the same language as Yanks, ignoring loos, lorries, lifts, and bobbies.

If people are ripping you off and they say the reason is because they don't want to wait for the product to be released locally, then there's an easy solution: release the product locally! Start considering the US and UK to be part of the same market. If piracy is such a problem in the UK because of this, then addressing the customer's complaints will result in a far greater boost in revenue than any cost savings for releasing the game in the UK along with the rest of Europe.

In other words: duh!